


pancake batter

by nanasuoka (djbunn3)



Category: Free!
Genre: Baking, Cooking, Fluff, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-01 08:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20812352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/djbunn3/pseuds/nanasuoka
Summary: When Sousuke arrives at the Matsuoka household, the place is an absolute mess. There are dirty spatulas and eggshells and milk cartons strewn all over the counter, not to mention the white powder finely dusted across every surface within a five-foot radius of the kitchen. Even Steve has a few blobs of thick, pasty batter on him that he’s attempting to lick off his back with minimal success.“What are you doing?” Sousuke asks Rin, who’s also covered in batter and has a bowl of the stuff propped under his arm.“We’re making pancakes,” Rin replies straightforwardly, as if it should be obvious.





	pancake batter

When Sousuke arrives at the Matsuoka household, the place is an absolute mess. There are dirty spatulas and eggshells and milk cartons strewn all over the counter, not to mention the white powder finely dusted across every surface within a five-foot radius of the kitchen. Even Steve has a few blobs of thick, pasty batter on him that he’s attempting to lick off his back with minimal success.

“What are you doing?” Sousuke asks Rin, who’s also covered in batter and has a bowl of the stuff propped under his arm.

“We’re making pancakes,” Rin replies straightforwardly, as if it should be obvious.

“Do you want to help?” Gou chirps from her position at the stove, where she’s trying to flip an unevenly spread pancake out of the skillet. Puffs of smoke are starting to form around its edges, making the whole kitchen smell like fire. Sousuke is surprised the smoke alarm isn’t going off yet.

“Yeah,” Rin says, “we could use your cooking expertise.”

Sousuke looks between the two siblings and the mess of a kitchen, then back again. On one hand, doing the behind-the-scenes cooking for the swim club’s maid cafe from hell doesn’t exactly mean he’s an  _ expert _ at cooking. On the other, whatever skills he brings to the table definitely can’t hurt, if the state of the kitchen is anything to go by.

“Sure,” he agrees at last, if only to save the Matsuoka’s house from burning down. Rin grins and thrusts the bowl of batter he’d been holding into Sousuke’s chest, almost dropping it in the process. The spatula inside is sticking straight up.

“What… happened to this?” Sousuke asks, frowning down at the sticky mess suspiciously.

“We  _ may  _ have measured the ingredients wrong,” Gou says with a sheepish laugh. “And we might have over-mixed it, too…”

“Also, there are probably egg shells in there,” Rin adds unabashedly. “But hey, the first one’s almost cooked, right Gou?”

Gou answers by flipping a half-charred, half-uncooked lump of batter onto one of Miyako Matsuoka’s fancy serving plates. The undercooked part is still bubbling dangerously, and there are black scorch marks all over the other side.

“We’re starting over,” Sousuke decides.

After a bit of chaos during which Rin trips on Steve, Gou drops batter on the floor, and Sousuke accidentally cracks two eggs against the counter, the three of them fall into new roles. Rin dumps the old batter and the first pancake into the garbage and rinses out the bowl while Sousuke and Gou start cleaning up and gathering ingredients for the new batch. Sousuke measures out four cups of pancake mix, careful not to get it all over everything while relentlessly teasing the others about their cooking skills.

“Honestly, Rin, how are you going to survive in Australia? You can’t even make pancakes from a box.”

“Shut up,” Rin grumbles, although there’s no edge to it. “I wasn’t the one who burnt the first one to a crisp.”

“You were supposed to set a timer!” Gou retorts, then grins mischievously at Sousuke. “I’m starting to think you living by yourself isn’t the best idea, onii-chan.”

“Both of you, get off my back, or I’ll turn  _ you _ into pancakes,” Rin threatens, brandishing a clean plastic spatula at the two of them. Sousuke chuckles and goes back to cracking eggs into a separate bowl. He’s careful to keep the eggshells from breaking apart and dropping into the yolks and whites--crunchy pancakes are a definite no.

“Gou, would you hand me the whisk?” he asks once the milk and eggs are ready to add. Gou slides past Rin, who’s greasing the skillet with a slab of butter, then hands him a balloon whisk from the counter. Carefully, Sousuke pours the wet ingredients into the bowl with the pancake mix, whisking as he goes.

“Doesn’t that look kind of lumpy?” Gou asks, standing on her toes to see past him.

“There are supposed to be lumps,” Sousuke tells her, continuing to stir the ingredients together. “I think it helps make the pancakes fluffy.”

Gou nods, hopping up onto the counter to watch him whisk everything together inside the bowl until it’s just smooth enough to pour. He takes the batter over to the stove, where Rin scoops a quarter cup of the batter into the pan.

“Hey, you’re right,” he says, watching as the pancake evens itself out into an almost perfect circle. Gou pops her head over Sousuke’s shoulder to watch as it begins to cook.

“Yes! Breakfast!” she exclaims with a grin, clapping excitedly. “I thought we’d never get to eat.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rin says amusedly, shaking his head at his sister. “Move over, I don’t have room to flip it.”

Sousuke and Gou step back and watch as Rin slides a spatula under the half-cooked pancake, then executes a messy flip. The pancake lands on its uncooked side, looking deliciously golden brown.

“Perfect,” Sousuke says, smiling proudly.

The three of them work together to make twenty three pancakes--fifteen plain ones and eight with chocolate chips, because Gou insisted they deserved a break from their meal plans. By the time the last pancake is flipped, Sousuke has finished cleaning up the kitchen, and Gou has bowls of fresh berries and a can of whipped cream set up on the table. It looks like one of those classic American breakfasts Sousuke sees pictures of on the internet, and he can’t help but feel a little bit proud.

“No pancakes for you, Steve,” Gou says as Steve jumps from the floor to the chair and peers up at the spread. Rin chuckles and goes to pet him, but he turns his back and jumps away before he has the chance.

“That cat really does hate you,” Sousuke says with a smile. Rin fixes him with an unamused squint, but the corners of his mouth twitch up just a little bit, giving him away.

“We have a complicated relationship,” he retorts.

“Oh, is that what you call it?”

They’re interrupted by a giggle from across the table. Sousuke turns to Gou, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

“Sorry,” she says with a smile and a wave of her hand. “It’s just nice to see the two of you getting along again after all that time apart. Just like when we were kids, right?”

Sousuke looks back and forth between the Matsuoka siblings, then breaks out into a small smile. “Right,” he says with a nod.

“Right,” Rin agrees, blinking rapidly and shaking his head.  _ Teary as always, _ Sousuke thinks, amused. To be fair, he’s feeling a little sentimental, too.

“Come on,” he says with a shake of his head, pulling out a chair and sitting down at the table. “It’s gonna get cold if we don’t eat now.”

The three of them sit down together, and Gou serves each of them a chocolate chip pancake to start. Sousuke cuts his into a few pieces, then lifts one to his mouth. It’s still warm, and the chocolate chips are melty and messy and delicious inside the fluffy pancake, adding the perfect amount of sweetness. He has to admit, going off of his strict meal plan every now and again isn’t the  _ worst _ thing in the world.

“This is amazing!” Gou exclaims, covering her mouth with her hand. “Sousuke, you should come help us with breakfast every day!”

“I don’t know about that,” Sousuke chuckles.

“It  _ is _ really good,” Rin says, lifting another piece of pancake to his mouth. “I guess we  _ could _ learn a thing or two from you before I head off to Australia.”

“Well, we’ve got plenty of time for that,” Sousuke says. “I can teach you two how to make all kinds of things. Omurice, eggs, yakisoba…”

“I know how to make eggs!” Gou protests, sticking her bottom lip out and pouting. Sousuke laughs, hiding his smile behind his hand.

“I’m just kidding,” he amends, reaching over to pat her head. Her pout lessens a little at that.

“You can teach us how to make whatever you want as long as it tastes this good,” Rin says, reaching over with his fork to pull another pancake off of the stack and onto his plate. Across from him, Sousuke does the same.

They sit and eat and talk for over an hour, taking their time to catch up with each other. Gou gives them updates on the Iwatobi swim club with a promise to plan a joint practice sometime soon, and Rin and teases her about Momo’s latest plan to get to know her, despite the rest of the team’s warnings against it. Sousuke doesn’t remember the last time he’d smiled and laughed as much as he has been today. By the time he has to leave, his face almost hurts because of it.

“Are you sure we can’t send you off with some pancakes?” Gou asks, gesturing towards the marginally less impressive stack on the table. “I don’t know how we’re going to eat all of those on our own.”

“I’m alright,” Sousuke replies as he stands in the doorway, looking between his friends. “But thanks. And thanks for having me over today, too. I’ve kind of missed hanging out like this.”

“So have we,” Rin says with a glance towards his sister. “Let’s do this again sometime soon, yeah?”

“Yeah!” Gou agrees excitedly, her ponytail bouncing along as she reaches her hand out, pinky extended. “Promise, Sousuke?”

“Promise,” Sousuke says, reaching out and wrapping his pinky around hers and thinking that of all the promises he’s made in the past, this one he intends to keep.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my fic for the [For the Team Zine](https://fortheteamzine.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr! I got to write about the friendship between Rin, Gou, and Sousuke, which was a lot of fun given the history the three of them have that the show has only slightly touched upon!  
[My Tumblr](https://djbunn3.tumblr.com/)


End file.
